Just like what goes up, must come down your work week begins and ends. It's how you begin the week and how you plan for the week which, determine how you end the week. Taking time to plan equates to success. I used to think of work as something I had to do. Somewhere I needed to be. For a period of time each week. Usually, with set hours of 9 to 5 from Monday through Friday with weekends and holidays off. I had a few jobs with varying hours and times and days. Some required me to work weekends. There were also times I could not wait for lunchtime or the clock to to show me the much awaited time to depart and go home to do whatever I pleased. I would go home and make dinner or go out with friends.
That was the life or so I thought. No one introduced me to anything different. My family never spoke about planning other than our weekly camping outings over the summer months. At least not until I got into a sales position in mortgage over twenty years ago. AHA! I became associated with people that wanted to do better. People who wanted to reach a goal or make a significant contribution to the workplace. Some needed a pat on the back or other forms of recognition. There were others that enjoyed the accolades of posh trips and significant bonuses for out producing their peers and driving up the sales numbers. It became quite exciting to me. I wanted be a part of this newly found occupation. I wanted to have my name on the board and my numbers generate envy and applause from my co-workers.
BUT, I didn't know how to get the phone to stop ringing or take advantage of it. I couldn't keep up with the messages for my response. I felt like the proverbial tail was wagging the dog. I was exhausted before I got started each week. I dreaded the mounds of files on every surface in my office, including the floor, and countless pieces of torn pages on my desk. Little notes in shorthand scribbled on them as I could not write fast enough. I was glad I had two years of classes in shorthand in high school.
One Friday, I met with a local business man like we did most Fridays for coffee and donuts. Neither one of us needed the donuts. We began to realize we were in a bit of a quandry. The work wasn't getting done due to the enormous amount of anxiety from the endless weeks of frustration. We had an epiphany. A light bulb of an idea. We realized we needed help and began the search of books to read and CD's to listen to and magazines to subscribe to. We attended seminars with well known speakers. Each of these sources narrowed down our problem in a few words-planning to succeed. Sure there were a lot of ways to get there and each of them divulged their magic bullet. I enjoyed listening and reading and having open discussions on so many topics.
We had a solution and worked on the processes to get control of our work and our week. We realized the planning and scheduling were a key element to success. We became more disciplined. We practiced techniques. Eventually, we discovered we had time to meet and talk about our progress. We made a schedule we could live with. The days were long. There were fewer sleepless nights. He managed to honor his commitment to end his day far sooner than I. Looking back, I had more control over the later part of the 22 years than I thought I did through proper planning and scheduling of my time.
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